Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the February 6 earthquake on the bacteria grown in urine cultures and antibiotic resistance of patients admitted to the urology outpatient clinic. METHODS: In this study, 11,397 urine samples requested by the urology outpatient clinic between January 2022 and December 2023 were examined. We evaluated the urine cultures and antibiotic resistance profiles of the pathogens in patients' clinic in the years 2022 and 2023 separately and post-earthquake year 2023 as two separate periods, as the first 6-month period immediately after the earthquake. The pathogens grown in urine cultures and antibiotic resistance profiles were examined retrospectively. Only one of the same strains isolated in consecutive repeated growths in the urine cultures of the patients was included. RESULTS: Of the 11,397 urine cultures, 6,914 were requested in 2022 and 4,483 were requested in 2023. There was no statistical difference in the growth rate between the years (13.1-14.1%). When the demographic data of the first and last 6 months of 2023 were compared, statistical differences were found between the first and last six months of 2023 in terms of the number of patients for whom culture was requested, the number of culture positives, the reproduction rate, and the number of male and female patients. The total number of patients for whom urine culture was requested was 4483 (1471 in the first six months - 3012 in the last six months) (p=0.008) and the number of culture-positive patients was 630 (184-446) (p=0.007). The reproduction rates were found to be 12.5% and 14.8%, respectively (p=0.047). It was found that the resistance rates of Escherichia coli (E. coli) to gentamicin (GN), cefuroxime (CXM), cefixime (CFM) and ceftazidime (CAZ) groups of antibiotics were higher in the first six-month period of 2023 (p<0.05). Similarly, the resistance rate of Klebsiella spp. to CXM and CAZ groups of antibiotics was found to be higher in the first six-month period of 2023 (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: The results of our study show that the conditions in communal living areas after the February 6 earthquake had an increasing impact on antibiotic resistance rates and antibiotic resistance rates of certain groups of antibiotics, especially the Enterobacterales group were higher in the first half of 2023.